The veteran of 104 Tests insisted that the Twenty20 tournament was a "great advertisement for pure entertainment".u00a0

Wasim Akram (right) with Brett Lee (centre). Pic/AFP

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Akram said that success makes many enemies and IPL was one glaring example of that. "Only successful people have critics. In our culture, there is a tendency to run down a prosperous venture. Make no mistake, IPL is all about success. Every year it is making a positive statement and attracting the best in the world. We have had packed stadiums in almost every game. That's just great," the cricketer wrote in his column for 'espnstar.com'.u00a0

The fifth edition of IPL has been marred with controversies with a television channel alleging that fixing of matches was rampant in the tournament.

KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan was involved in a brawl with the Mumbai Cricket Association officials at the Wankhede stadium leading to his ban for five years from the venue.u00a0The chorus against IPL got louder when Royal Challengers Bangalore's Australian recruit Luke Pomersbach was charged of molesting an American national at the team hotel here. If all these were not enough, Pune Warrior's cricketers Rahul Sharma and Wayne Parnell were detained by the police after a raid at a rave party.u00a0

However, Akram insisted that the controversies surrounding the IPL have in no way "dampened the spirit of the game". "Any big event always brings along its share of concerns. Controversies may have surfaced but they haven't damped the spirit of cricket. Close matches have underlined the beauty of T20 cricket," he wrote.u00a0